Mail Online boosted revenue to £60m in first six months, but not yet in profit

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Revenue growth at Mail Online more than made up for decline at the Mail print titles in the first half of this year.

The website, which attracts around 15m unique browsers per day, reported revenue up 35 per cent year on year to £60m for the six months to the end of March, up from £44m in the same period a year ago. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday print titles turned over £234m, down from £242m in the first half of 2016.

Overall the Mail Businesses reported profit up 4 per cent to £35m.

Sister title free daily Metro reported revenue for the first half up 1 per cent to £34m and profit down 35 per cent to £5m. Metro’s profitability was hit by increased printing and distribution costs.

Overall advertising performed slighty better in the period, down 8 per cent compared with a fall of 12 per cent in the whole of 2016.

Digital advertising across the DMG Media division was said to be up 12 per cent on an underlying basis.

Mail Online is not yet profitable in its own right, but said to be “making good progress on the path to profitability”.

Parent company DMGT said that underlying digital advertising growth at Mail Online was “expected to broadly offset circulation and print advertising declines” in six months time when the full-year figures are released.

Overall, DMGT reported revenue of £794m in the six-month period (down from £756m) and pre-tax profit of £41m (down from £172m).

The figures have been hit by the fact that DMGT now only owns 49 per of former subsidiary Euromoney. This financial information business has previously been a strong driver of DMGT profits but no longer figures in the statutory results.